Mexico is making headlines, and it's for the wrong reasons.
A country that I am proud to call home, Mexico is a vibrant, progressive and prosperous nation. Yet, the flood of one-dimensional news stories about Mexico has masked these very positive attributes. While it is undeniably true that the "war on drugs" poses one of Mexico's biggest challenges since the revolution of the 1900s, this single brush stroke fails to paint an entire picture.
Capturing the mosaic of Mexico's rich history and bright future requires much more texture and complexity. Like every country, Mexico's story cannot be defined by a single aspect or indicator, and much less by media perception. The Happy Planet Index (HPI) 2.0, published by the New Economics Foundation (NEF), measures life expectancy, life satisfaction and per capita ecological footprint. In its latest edition, HPI 2.0 ranks Mexico the happiest country, not only in North America, but in the entire northern hemisphere. One reason for this, I'm convinced, exists in the fact that family values and traditions are often a source of happiness. Dan Buettner, author of the book Thrive: Finding Happiness the Blue Zones Way, designates my home state of Nuevo Leon as the happiest region of Mexico. He cites:
"Their definition of family [in Nuevo Leon] is about an order of magnitude bigger than a typical definition of family. Theirs includes not only kids and moms and dads, but also cousins and second cousins, aunts and uncles, godparents. And that does some helpful things ... What you have going in Mexico, these big families, they provide a financial safety net, a buffer from stress. They do suffer from all kinds of stressful things in their lives, but they have a way to shed the stress--family helps."
For those that have never had the opportunity to embrace life in Mexico, it may be difficult to understand how strong this family fabric truly is. However, the strength we derive from our families is a resilient platform for our future. Today, more than 20.3 million people in Mexico are between the ages of 15 and 24 - a number larger than the population of the Nordic countries combined. As these family-supported youth continue to join the workforce, Mexico is poised for large-scale economic growth.
Moreover, the 2010 census shows us that Mexicans are the healthiest, most successful and most educated that they have ever been. According to the World Bank, the overall life expectancy in Mexico is age 76, higher than that of Brazil, Russia, India and China, and, more importantly, nine years more than what it was in 1981. Mexico's education has also greatly improved in the last twenty years -- fewer than 2% of today's youths are illiterate, compared with a third of those ages 75 and older.
In many ways, Mexico is a much stronger country than ever before. While awareness of one's weaknesses is important for growth and self-improvement, a comparison with the past may provide a much-needed case for optimism: we must use a wider lens to capture Mexico's complex, colorful story.
You think we mexicans are guys still riding horses with "charro suits" who resolve their conflicts and disagreements with bullets??
WE DON'T SELL GUNS... and certainly DON'T USE DRUGS on the scale other "double-moral world-police-inspector-certifying-paranoid" countries DO.
This insidious greed makes it almost impossible for Mexico's poor to live in either country and prosper.
Stay in Mexico and be paid the Federal minimum wage of +/- 62 CENTS an hour? Or cross north, be scapegoated as a criminal invader, and get paid at least ten times that while being able to send remittances back home to help your family.
The US middle class pays dearly for the medical and educational expenses of the Mexican undocumented in the US. Meanwhile, the US elite, and the Mexican elite sit back and rake in the profit of this status quo.
Said elite could care less about the wonderful, honest, respectful people on either side of the border. Trade, oil, illegal drugs, weapons, drug wars, NAFTA, cheap labor etc. are more important to the elite than human life or human rights.
Occupy both countries!
I ask this because, if you DID have any experience with Mexico, you would know that, as in the United States, most people do NOT make minimum wage. Mexico's per-capita GDP is $14K per person, which places it squarely in the realm of middle income countries, and, while that kind of income would be very low in the US, in Mexico, housing and food are much cheaper.
The US middle class is not paying for Mexico's problems, it is paying for the greed of the filthy farmers and business owners who do not want to pay a living wage to Americans, and thus attract illegal aliens.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_impact_of_illegal_immigrants_in_the_United_States
Summary:
The evidence suggests that the overall costs imposed on the U.S. economy by undocumented immigrants are equivalent to or outweighed by the benefits. However, this issue remains contentious in part because the costs of illegal immigration are not often borne by the people and institutions benefiting from illegal immigration